Best Way To Multidot

[demoncleaner]

So I am starting to play my lock again and affliction has always been my favorite spec. The one thing I'm having trouble with is getting the hang of is how to optimally multidot. I'll use stone guard as the example since its the best fight for it.

My main question is what is the best way to apply the dots and keep them up? I'm not sure how to prioritize mg and keeping dots up on my second and third targets. Should I just be sb:swing dots as I get shards? Or should I be prioritizing hard casting dots on the other two targets over mg spam?

The former keeps me from haunting much and the latter drops my mg usage a ton.

[Deleted]

Keep dots up 100% on all targets that take full dmg. Don't cast haunt unless all targets have long duration left on dots. MG the haunt target 100%. If procs up update all dots that benefit from pandemic 100%.

[demoncleaner]

Sounds easy enough. Second question. Is there a nameplate addon anyone can recommend? I was using tidyplates but I don't much care for it.

[kiezo]

I use ElvUI's nameplate module. An alternative with a different visual style is ForteExorcist. It keeps them all the DoTs on your targets in the same place instead of over the individual mob's nameplate.

[Mixehh]

Tidyplates is going to be your best bet to be fair, especially seeing as it integrates with Affdots to display the dot power. However, like Kiezo, I'm currently using the default ElvUI offering, mainly due to laziness and a horrid feeling that I won't be able to get Tidyplates to reflect the look I've currently got

[pitakos]

You can get a combination of Kui Nameplates (its a very light version of nameplates, imo much better than tidyplates but hasn't your dots on each target to track)
and Platebuffs (the 5.1 version from wowinterface not from curse its outdated)

I swapped to these two recently, both are lighter than Tidyplates and much more easier for your eyes to track buffs/debuffs. And its better for PvP (Platebuff can show many things on your target like Divine Shield or other offensive/defencive CDs).

[Bonkura]

Avoid hardcasting UA and don't let your MG uptime drop too much. If you start dropping your MG below half of your usual uptime you're spending too much time casting dots and should check your rotation. Keep Corr up with SB:SoC if you have >4 targets (and can hit all), only refresh Agony outside of that. Keep all dots on the target you're channeling MG on. SB:SS will usually have a higher DPET than Haunt in multidot scenarios because of lower MG uptime.

But yeah, I usually recommend people who struggle with multidotting to only apply UA on non-nuke targets with SB:SS since it's not really worth it to hardcast UA when there's more than two targets.

[Harsesis]

Avoid hardcasting UA and don't let your MG uptime drop too much.

So how do you not hardcast UA? If you say Felflame you are wrong.

[Gohzerlock]

So how do you not hardcast UA? If you say Felflame you are wrong.

sb:sw? or not casting at all? I think what he's saying is that if you're on a fight like stoneguard and have trouble multidotting keep UA on primary target, but for the other targets don't sacrifice too much MG channel time casting ua on secondary targets as opposed to keeping up corrupt and agony on them while maximizing MG uptime on primary target with full dots.

[Bonkura]

Yeah SB:SS or don't put it up at all.

[Deleted]

Optimal multidotting is a science of its own.

You need to these and possibly more things into consideration:
How long will the targets be alive?
Are they grouped up (close enough for SoC)?
How many are there?
Do they refund shards if I Drain Soul execute them?

On Stone Guards I SB:SS on the active dogs followed by Malefic Grasp on whichever target has the strongest dots.
On Wind Lord I SB:CoE, SB:SoC and manually cast Agony on everyone before I start tab-soccing. You can spend shards on SB:SS too, when you start to get them flowing in from the spread corr.